Four days anchored in Baltimore, ten days in Annapolis and six days in
Hampton (so far). If we include the three days of transit down the Bay we have
sailed a total of three days. Three days out of twenty-two is not the stuff
that interesting cruising logs are made of. I realize this. We promise to do
better in the future, but in the meantime I will recap our last three+ weeks
here in the Chesapeake. Beware: it is mostly a discussion of what we have
eaten.

Baltimore is always a great stop for us. We manage to get a lot accomplished
mere steps from the "Safeway" anchorage. The most enjoyable part of our
Baltimore visits however, is the food. This year our friend and Baltimore
dining connoisseur, Rod, arrived from Silver Springs solo, leaving his beloved
slaving away in the salt mines of D.C. Gladly he was able to soldier on without
her and lead us on his usual gastronomical tour of our Canton neighborhood. The
first outing was for dinner. The Shango crew's semi-annual trip to the Gecko
was in order. Nick, the owner was in fine fettle, handing out free shots of
tequila to his regulars (read: Rod) and their friends (read: us, or more
precisely, Roger). We dined on the evening's $10 special, had several
margarita's and waddled happily home. Next was a lunch trip. After a tiresome
morning of shopping Rod guided us to the Poncabird Pub. Home of some of the
largest burgers in the world. Conveniently located near the docks at the east
end of town, the Poncabird is not to be missed. But be warned: don't stop for
lunch if you have dinner plans. Sadly we had dinner plans. Rod & Barbara had
recently discovered a new Mexican place on Broadway and we had to check it out.
I was still full from my burger so all I could manage was a wonderful bowl of
soup. The guys had recovered and managed to work their way through some great
authentic Mexican meals. As I write this log entry neither Roger nor I can
remember the name of the restaurant. So sorry! You will be glad to know that we
were not completely without water born excitement during our Baltimore stay. At
around midnight after our authentic Mexican meals the wind clocked around and
started to blow at about thirty knots. The sound of the wind got me out of bed
and much to my dismay I found that we were dragging toward the docks of the
neighboring marina. Yikes! I quickly rousted Roger and we charged on deck.
Naked. In the cold. In the wind. With very little room left before disaster
we were able to get the boat in forward and re-anchor (after removing the mother
load of plastic Safeway shopping bags from the hook). A chilly night all in
all. Sleep was a long time in coming.

After four days of eating in Baltimore we were ready to go eat in Annapolis,
so on Saturday, October 30th we motored our way the twenty-five miles south to
Spa Creek. (I did not include this in our three days of sailing.) We were
invited to a post football game (Navy vs. Duke) dinner at a friend's house that
evening. We arrived at the appointed hour and found ourselves alone in the
driveway. Happily before too long our hostess arrived at a trot. She had run
the entire distance from the game which apparently went long. The other dinner
guests arrived en masse shortly after via taxi. Dinner was great.

Sunday morning we were joined for breakfast afloat. Our friends Chace &
Josie on the PS40 Windaway rafted up for bagels & cream cheese. It was
actually more of a boat inspection breakfast as is always the case when two of
the same boats get together. It was back to their place in Eastport for
Patriots football and dinner that afternoon. We were joined for dinner by Greg
& Vicki from the boat ErinBrie. They recently finished a
circumnavigation on their Valiant 50. We were able to torment them with
questions between trips to the door for trick-or-treaters. Our last American
Halloween for a while was a great time.

We spent the following week working on our never ending to-do list. We got
together once more with ErinBrie and had another enjoyable dinner. Friday
morning we put the boat on a mooring for safekeeping and were fetched from the
Harbormaster's Office by our trusty companion, Rod. After a brief stop for
barbeque we made our way to Silver Spring for the weekend. This wasn't just any
weekend, mind you. This was Barbara & Rod's annual "Invite the Street Over for
Dinner" Party weekend. We launched ourselves into the party prep, while staying
out of Rod's hair while he cooked. The fete was a great success. The pots of
gumbo, green chili and crab soup (our third in a week) were terrific and no
leftovers were to be had. It was back to the boat on Sunday, but not before a
stop for brunch. Sunday afternoon we puttered around on projects. At some
point I went above for something and there was an Amel headed into the mooring
field. After about two seconds I realized that it wasn't just any Amel, it was
Cayenne! I waved, thinking they had seen us but when they started to go
by I charged onto the foredeck and began waving in earnest. They caught sight
of me and quickly started doing laps around, eventually picking up the mooring
next door. "Come for tea!" was the command from Sabine. And so we did. We had
met the Austrian boat Cayenne in Puerto Rico last March and they came up
the East Coast to Newburyport in September before going on to Maine. Now we
were together once again. Their friends, Uli & Imke from Bremen on the boat
Eiland also came for tea. When it is cold Austrians like to drink "rum
tea". I believe this is good policy. We had a fine afternoon. The following
night we all went out for a crab dinner. Along the way we had picked up another
German couple from the catamaran Pacific High. With Imke's visiting
sister Mica we were nine, seven of whom were chattering in German. Poor
waitress.

After ten days in Annapolis, armed with the name of a marine electrician in
Hampton, we finally headed South once again. Our first stop was the Solomons.
The wind was dead astern and only about twelve knots so it was a motor sail for
us. Still it was nice to be moving again. We pulled into the Solomons in the
early afternoon and dropped the hook. Much to our surprise we found ourselves
anchored next to a boat called Cgull Seeker. Eight years ago on our
first cruise we found ourselves in Georgetown, Great Exuma with a dying
transmission. We got on the morning net and asked if anyone had any ideas.
Cgull Seeker responded and we took our dinghy over to hear his thoughts.
"Your transmission goes just as well in forward as reverse. Get yourself a
reverse propeller and use reverse as forward." So we did. And it worked. We
went "in reverse" all the way home to New England. Needless to say Roger saw an
opportunity to say thank you floating mere yards away. "Just trying to be
helpful" was Cgull Seeker's response. You have to love cruisers.

On Wednesday, November 10th we had a terrific sail from the Solomons down to
Fishing Bay in Deltaville. Downwind once again but this time we had sufficient
wind to sail. We followed this with a similar run from Fishing Bay down to
Hampton on the 11th. We opted for the straight downwind shot under main alone.
A second boat that left at the same time went for the leg across the Bay, jibe
and come back approach. We finished together at the entrance to Hampton. On
Friday, Don the electrician arrived bright and early and he and Roger spent the
morning going over the electrical system. Don reached basically the same
conclusion as Roger had a week earlier. Something is amiss with the Link 2000R
despite it's just having returned from being repaired. Off it went again. In
addition Roger decided that we'd replace our batteries here instead of waiting
till we get to New Zealand. With that project underway we turned our attention
to our newly arrived visitor, my cousin Mike from Charlottesville, VA. He
arrived Friday afternoon for a visit and to help out. After much driving around
we rewarded ourselves with a great tuna dinner at a local restaurant called
Marker 20. Order anything involving tuna and you're sure to be happy. After a
trip up the mast Saturday mid-day Mike made his way out of town (I don't think
the two are related.) Thanks for all your help Mike!

So here we are, at the Hampton Public Piers on Tuesday, November 16th. Our
batteries are arriving across the Bay this evening and we'll head in that
direction in the next day or two. Now that our insurance plan's November 15 date
has passed for heading south, it looks like there is a weather window of sorts
(benign) on Friday/Saturday to make our way down to the Bahamas and warmer
weather. I believe we're going to be able to try out our new asymmetrical "The
Purple Monster"

Thursday, December 2nd, George Town, Great Exuma, Bahamas

Almost two weeks after leaving Willoughby Bay in Norfolk we can report that
we are thoroughly defrosted. It actually didn't take us the whole two weeks,
just a few days. It's amazing what a change several degrees of latitude can
make in your life. Roger has his first sunburn and I am doused in sunblock once
again.

The passage to the Bahamas was a reasonably good one. I say reasonably good
because there wasn't as much wind as we would have liked. As we planned our
departure we considered two things: Our sanity and the weather. We are list
makers by nature. We have to-do lists and spares lists, provisioning lists and
any other list you care to think of. After one month in the Chesapeake spent
staring at our lists and making one foray after another to locate and secure the
" item(s) which may exist nowhere else in the world" we were definitely feeling
oppressed. Self-inflicted, yes, but oppressed nonetheless. With a seemingly
unending forecast of mild weather off the mid-Atlantic coast all the way down
to the Bahamas we considered our position. If we continued to wait for another
week or more for the right wind the season would be growing quickly colder and
less predictable (or more predictable in a bad way.) We were losing our grip on
just what was a reasonable amount of preparation, and our sanity in the
process. "Just go" said our saner selves. So we did.

On Friday the 19th, after a late evening installing and hooking up a new bank
of batteries we were guided out of the Marina at Willoughby Bay by Don the
electrician and his girlfriend, Pam. Roger backed the boat down what seemed
like the longest, darkest fairway in the world in exemplary fashion. Phew! We
dropped the hook in the Bay and got one last night of uninterrupted sleep before
our passage.

Passage Notes

Day 1, Saturday, November 20th

We got underway from Norfolk by 11:00 a.m., rounding Fort Wool and pointing
east toward the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. There was a southwest breeze which was
perfect for our purposes. We rounded Cape Henry by mid-afternoon and were able
to sail until early evening when the angle got too tight for the genoa so we
motorsailed with the main. The moon was almost full and the breeze was from
offshore so the ride was very comfortable.

Day 2, Sunday, November 21

Our first overnight was really pleasant and Sunday dawned sunny and beautiful
once again. As we rounded Cape Hatteras there was a good deal of traffic as
ships squeezed between the northbound Gulf Stream and the land. The AIS is
really swell at times like those. Much to our surprise we were overtaken by
three migrating blue herons. They seemed VERY out of place. We were definitely
entering the Gulf Stream by mid-day. The water temperature had risen from 59
degrees in the morning to 78.8 degrees by noon. A sign of hope that there would
be warmer weather soon.

Day 3, Monday, November 22

Sunday's overnight was magical. The moon was full and there was absolutely
no wind making the moonlight just amazing. Ok, so it wasn't very good for
sailing. The wind continued light all day Monday. We sailed for a while with 8
knots of breeze. Sadly the angle was wrong for the asymmetrical. We were
visited by dolphins in the morning and by a parade of jellyfish headed north on
the stream all afternoon. I enjoyed the afternoon with my book, House of
Spirits by Isabel Allende.

Day 4, Tuesday, November 23

Enjoyed another night of dazzling moonlight. The wind dropped at 8:00 p.m.
so the engine was on overnight. It was calm but slightly rollier than previous
nights. In the morning we were lapped several times by what appeared to be
long-tailed tropic birds. Are they found this far north? The pink-bellied
dolphins came out once again to play. By mid-afternoon we were motorsailing
when we noted an AIS target not too far away, moving at a very slow speed.
Sailboat. It is fairly unusual to run across another sailboat out in the open
sea so we got together for a brief visit and photo swap. El Gecco, a 51 foot
Catamaran, was heading from Charleston to the DR. They left on Saturday also.
We commiserated about the light conditions and continued on our respective
paths.

Day 5, Wednesday, November 24

Overnight, the clouds got in the way of the moon making it harder to stay
awake. It was a pleasant night nonetheless. By Wednesday mid-day the
conditions were right for the asymmetrical. Out it came from it's place of
honor in the head and up on deck for its first deployment. All went according
to plan and in no time the giant purple and silver sail was flying. Very
impressive. Sadly our excitement was short lived as the wind fell to nothing
and the engine went back on. The long-tailed tropic birds returned for another
fly over.

Day 6, Thursday, November 25th (Thanksgiving)

We finished off our passage with a great sail. We had 10-15 knots of wind
from 45-60 degrees. Seas were reasonable so we were able to make good headway.
We were anchored at our destination, Royal Island, by 3:00 p.m. I had organized
as much of our Thanksgiving dinner as I dared while underway during the morning
but I have to say I didn't have the nerve to put the pumpkin pie in the oven
until we dropped the hook. Dinner was accompanied by champagne and the happy
knowledge that we didn't have to get up during the up night. Welcome to the
Bahamas!

In the week since our arrival in the Bahamas we have made our way down the
Exuma chain to George Town, Great Exuma. The Exumas are beautiful but we didn't
linger. Our brief stays at Highborne, Shroud, Warderick Wells, Sampson and Big
Galliot Cays were each wonderful but our thoughts are on the rapidly approaching
Winter trade winds. The longer we spend in the Bahamas the stronger the winds
will become for our trip to Cartagena. Off we go!